A Mini-Tour of Belgium

Let me preface this by apologizing for the shortness of this blog--I am coming down with a lovely cold and I just want to go to sleep, but I know that this is one of the few times I will have to write this blog and thus, I must write it--before I forget all the details too. This week we traveled to three different cities within Belgium--hence the title of the blog. Although they were all essentially in the same direction (north/northwest of Brussels), each town was quite different.


Every Tuesday/Wednesday we go on a field trip with the Nutrition Program--who are also from Clemson and studying at the CUBC--and this past week it was an entire day trip to Bruges/Brugge (whichever you want to call it). I felt like a third grader for being so excited for an all-day field trip, but hey, it's MUCH better than being in class all day long. If you didn't know, Bruges is the capital of West Flanders (the Flemish region) of Belgium. It's sort of near the coast--probably like an hour away maybe?--so it's another canal city, which makes it even prettier. I've pretty much decided that I'm going to live on a canal when it's time for me to get my own place.


Sasha was our tour guide once again and took us all around Bruges. Basically we learned lot of history and different things that makes Bruges unique. Because I cannot remember much of what Sasha discussed (since it was over a week ago) and I'm beyond tired and cannot breathe out of my nose, I'll just do a picture recap of the trip:

Bell Tower

Government building

Inside of a cathedral 

Katie, me, Dan, and Garrett in front of the cathedral

"God's Houses"--basically their version of a home for old people

I just really like this house.

Canals are everywhere!

So basically, we just walked around with the tour for about 2.5 hours and then broke off for lunch where all of us went to a little cafe and had sandwiches. THEN, we went to the store next door that sold cupcakes--not as big as the ones in Charleston and Georgetown, but still amazing. Of course I got Red Velvet. Half of the group went back to the Citadines after lunch and the rest of us hung around and explored more of Brussels--basically finding our magnets and going inside a few more churches.

Since we don't have Friday classes, we get all of the weekends of to travel.  Because we have a long weekend this coming weekend, we all kind of wanted to stay around Belgium and use our train passes to save up money for wherever we're going this weekend. Hannah, Lindsey, Bri, Caroline, and I all traveled to Antwerp on Friday morning to mid-afternoon. 

After getting off of the train, we were immediately in awe of the train station--it was so pretty! Probably the nicest one I have seen so far:

Antwerp train station

Right outside the train station is basically the shopping district--a HUGE shopping district. Being girls, we naturally HAD to stop at the closest H&M to look around and see what all they had--since everything is on sale during the month of July. Before leaving the store, we kind of came up with a game plan...what we wanted to see, what we wanted to go to first, etc.  We decided to make our way into and through the Groen Plaats (aka Grand Place) where the Antwerp town hall is located:

We turned the paw the wrong way :(

Antwerp city hall 

The town hall is super huge with a bunch of flags--I'm guessing represents the European Union?--however, I'm not perceptive enough to analyze every flag and memorize what country is what...so I'll just go with it.  Around the corner there was The Cathedral of Our Lady that we got to go inside and once again, it was not a disappointment. All of the European churches are absolutely gorgeous.  It just reaffirms your faith being in the presence of something so beautiful, all dedicated to worshiping and praising God.  I guess these churches are going to be what Heaven is going to be like--which is absolutely amazing.

Cathedral of Our Lady (left)

No wonder it took 200 years to build!

Inside the Cathedral of Our Lady

Moving along, we decided to go to a "castle"-Het Steen--on Antwerp's harbor.  It was basically a fortress first, but we'll just call it a call it a castle.  We only really got to tour what was outside...no rooms were open for us to look into, but we got a few good pictures. 

Princess Erica at her castle

Hannah, Lindsey, me, and Bri on the Antwerp harbor

After exploring the castle, we decided it was time for lunch so we found the little Italian place--that had a discount for students (but I don't think they gave us one). Regardless, it was DELISH.  They also gave us free bread and some cheese spread and olives before our meals came out--which is kind of a rarity here. Needless to say, we were so full when we left.  We did some souvenir shopping following lunch since we needed to catch a train at 3:03 because we were all wanting to go to Breendock Memorial--a former Nazi labor/concentration camp.

We arrived at Breendock around 4:15 and it usually takes about 2-3 hours to walk through the entire thing, but since they close at 5:30, we only got to listen to half of the listening guide, but at least we got to walk around the whole thing.  I'm not sure if this is "PC" but I thought it was awesome to experience.  I think that it's something everyone needs to go to at least once in their lifetime.  We all need a reminder of what humans can do to one another--even something as horrific and terrible as the Holocaust.  Once I heard all of the stories, so many emotions rushed to mind. I just don't understand 1.) how people can do this to other people and 2.) how people still believe the Holocaust was a conspiracy. If those ever go to one of these camps, they will realize what complete idiots they are. Regardless, I'm really glad I got to go to Breendock--even if it isn't as big of a name as Auschwitz or Dachau, it's still hits you. 

Where prisoners had to come for role call

Barracks

Guard tower outside of the moat

After leaving Breedock we decided to head back to the Citadines and plan our next day excursion, which we decided on Ghent! Ghent is the capital of the East Flanders province in Belgium and apparently is the number 2 location for romantic destinations.  The day started out kind of slow...we got a noon train and didn't get there until around 1...and it was rainy and cold. So that basically put a damper on our entire day because you don't really want to sight see in the rain. 

First, we had to take a 15 or 20 minute walk into the center of the city from the train station--1.) because we couldn't figure out where the metro went and 2.) we didn't want to pay extra when we were given feet to walk just the same. After figuring out some directions thanks to the lovely signs of Ghent, we made it to the historical district--where all of the buildings and stuff are. However, a reggae festival was just beginning so the stage and all of the tents definitely put a damper on the historic part of the city...but it was still pretty nonetheless. 

City of Antwerp--more canals!

Note all of the tents from the reggae festival

Apparently Ghent has a castle as well, Gravensteen, so in order to keep the tradition going, we decided to go there as well. It was the castle for the Count of Flanders (and family), so it was much larger than the other one. We got to go in alot of the rooms...and even "snuck" up to the roof! The view was amazing...you could literally see the entire town of Ghent. Even though it was raining, it was still a spectacular sight. 

Beautiful arches inside Gravensteen 

On top of the castle...stupid wind and hair in my face.

View of the three points (three churches) and Ghent from the Gravensteen roof!

 After heading out of the castle, we decided to grab some lunch at this pasta place called--Twilight--needless to say I was SO excited to hear the name. If you don't know why...ask any teenaged girl. We all got the spaghetti bolognese--which has nothing to do with bologna, by the way. It was delish. We moved on outside and walked around for a bit, but then it started pouring rain, we decided to walk into St. Nicholas cathedral.  It was pretty, not the most beautiful I have seen, but definitely nice. I've come to learn that there are different aspects about the different cathedrals that are better than others...if that makes sense. Some have more architecture, some have more paintings on the walls, and some have better organs and set-ups. Nevertheless, they all give you goosebumps and take your breath away.

St. Nicholas

Pulpit area (not sure if Catholics call it that or not)

Beautiful arches and ceilings

Not sure what this is...but it's pretty.

After seeing St. Nicholas cathedral, we decided to take the 15 minute walk back to the train station and head back to the Citadines--we were all super tired and worn out. I guess dreary weather does that to ya'.

As for other updates:

• I currently have a cold.
• We only have 10 days left here. So sad.
• We only have 5 days left of class. SO HAPPY.
• We found out that our room had bedbugs.
• I have at least 20 bites up my left arm.
• I actually saw one of the critters and turned it into the front desk.
• We moved rooms this afternoon.
• I'm currently doing a lot of (free) laundry.
• We're taking a field trip to a brewery tomorrow!
• Hannah and I are going to Paris on Thursday for the weekend! YAY!
• The Tour de France ends while we're there...legit